Jérémie

Jérémie, town, southwestern Haiti, on the northern shore of Pointe de (Cape) Tiburon, on the Gulf of Gonâve. It was founded in 1756, and the port was opened in 1807. It developed as a market and port for the produce (cacao, coffee, sugarcane, bananas, mangoes, logwood, and hides) of the fertile backcountry. Long regarded as a bastion of Haiti’s mulatto (of mixed African and European heritage) elite, Jérémie earned the title “City of Poets” in honour of its literary and artistic community. Jérémie is divided into Haute Ville, the residential section, with many quaint pink and green cottages, and Basse Ville, the commercial centre. The town was badly damaged by a hurricane in 1954. Jérémie went into a steep decline after 1964 when François (“Papa Doc”) Duvalier ordered the closure of its port as a reprisal for local opposition to his regime. Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (General Dumas), father and grandfather of the two celebrated French novelists, was born at nearby Madère. Pop. (2003 prelim.) 27,510.